Rehtaeh Parsons Photos Show Up In Facebook Dating Site Ads

Photos of Rehtaeh Parsons appeared Tuesday in Facebook ads for a dating site.

Toronto man Andrew Ennals was surfing the social media site Tuesday afternoon when he first saw the ad featuring Parsons. The 17-year-old teen died earlier this year after attempting suicide amid bullying that stemmed from a photo taken of her during an alleged sexual assault. Two Halifax teens face child pornography charges in the case.

Ennals told HuffPost Canada he was so baffled by the ads that he did a Google image search to double-check that the image was really of Parsons.

"Then I was just horrified," Ennals said in an email.

"I think Facebook needs to remove it, of course, but it also I think shows some of the flaws with their algorithm for drawing in images," he said. "I can't imagine that any company would do this on purpose."

Facebook told HuffPost Tuesday that the ads were in violation of its policies and have been removed and the company responsible has had its account blocked.

"This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image and using it in their ad campaign. This is a gross violation of our ad policies," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We apologize for any harm this has caused."

The companies involved may not have intended for Parsons to show up in their ads. Facebook told HuffPost that the photo could have come from anywhere on the web and that it was not an example of a profile photo being used in an advertisement.

Do you think Facebook is doing enough to remove objectionable content? Does the use of your images in advertising give you pause? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Rehtaeh Parsons: A Life In Photos

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Florida 2004 (from Facebook)

From Facebook:
Thank You Richard for sending me this photo...I did not have this class picture of me in grade six but as soon as I saw it I recalled the year and the principal in the back Mr Gallagher. I was starting to become more girlish looking and developing into a young lady (far left front) and a group of boys that were friends since 1st grade noticed the changes and suddenly were grabbing me inappropriately when I was walking the hallways. I told Mr Gallagher, he pulled each boy into his office and I never knew what he said but those boys never touched me or said another word about it. Mr Gallagher, where ever you are I thank you and I never forgot how you stood up for me.

Today on Father's Day remembering the love of a father and daughter. (Glen and Rehtaeh)

These are photos of Halifax teenager Rehtaeh Parsons, who was the victim of an alleged gang rape and an online bullying campaign over the last few months. Her mother, Leah Parsons, posted the images and her daughter's tragic story on a Facebook memorial page.

Online reaction to Parsons death has been swift. Hundreds of messages have flooded the memorial page set up by her mother. Many more have sounded off on Twitter.